Hello folks :) We are moving right along with the build. Nothing major to report but I do have some new pics. I will be off for Thanksgiving weekend so I will be pounding nails. I hope to have at least 3 walls up. I saw some pics of simple wall building, and the window openings were cut out after the walls went up. I am going to try that method and see how it goes. So don't freak out because you don't see any window openings yet.

I'll post up with a progress report after the weekend. I wish you all a nice and safe Thanksgiving Day.

Surprise, my nephews showed up! Thanks a bunch Corbin and Connor! They helped out and earned a burrito lunch! We got one part of one wall up and started the other section of it. I could make so much more progress if Mother Nature would quit raining on my days off. Ughhhh!

My Dad helped out framing the walls too. He has a really nice Porter Cable framing nail gun. It works freaking awesome! I own 2 Porter Cable nail guns also, a finish nailer and a brad nailer. I highly recommend Porter Cable air tools. They have never failed on me in the thousands of nails that I have shot out of them. Ok, picture time.

We have decided on where to park our Tiny House on my folks property. We moved it the trailer there and this is where we will continue the remainder of the build. After parking the trailer, I had to level it out. This was not too difficult but it was time consuming, especially when doing it by myself. So now that the leveling is done, the next step is framing. I have invited my nephews over to swing some hammers but they are kinda flakey so I'm not too convinced they will even show up. I could use their help, I hope they swing by.

Materials cost money and my labor is free (for friends and family anyways). My wife and I decided to get a construction quote from a framer that our good friend Cecil uses for his construction business. His framer wanted $4500 for labor just to frame and put up sheathing and roof decking. Keep in mind that this is just a rectangular 8' by 36' "box" and the quote did not include the materials. Jodie and I thought about it and we passed. It seemed a little on the high end for the work that was to be done. So, we purchased the materials at Lowes and had it delivered. It's time for me to get back to work building on this Tiny House of ours. Below are some pics and costs so far. Oh and by the way, the weather this time of year is awesome and the mosquitoes have all gone away. Hooray!

Well the kind of work I'm doing is not the fun kind. It's the kind of work you have to do to make some money. I'll be on a Unit Turnaround at Marathon Petroleum for at least 6 weeks. So I will not be able to do much of anything on the TIny House build. I'm gonna be working 13 hours a day for about 50 days straight and no days off. The money will be great for the Tiny House fund! I will be back soon ready to build. Please check back for updates. Thanks :)

I truly can't complain about having a job to go to every week. I am fortunate and I grateful for that. I am not so grateful for the rainy days off and the full blown plague of mosquitoes that go with the rain. It's crazy outside, the mosquitoes just swarm you like hoards of mini vampire minions! Anyways, I'm excited to get back to working on the Tiny House build. I will just douse myself with Off and light a bunch of citronella candles. Decking is going down next. Thanks for checking up on the build and stay tuned for more progress starting this coming weekend.

The trailer frame is painted and ready for building a house on! I am so stoked to move on to the next phase of construction. I know it has taken a bit of time to get this far but I am basically doing this all by myself. I do get help but most of the work is done solo. Like I would have never been able to weld and fabricate things without the help of my dad. He as a ton of knowledge about such things. i feel the next phase of construction, the actual house construction, should go up much quicker now. Unfortunately I have to work a "turnaround" at work and I will be working night hours. That means I will be sleeping during the day. This is only for about 6 weeks so It's just temporary. Anyways, here are some pics of the painted trailer frame.

I'm 99% certain that I'm done with the metal work now. I am looking forward to painting. Here is a little video of using the wire wheel on the angle grinder to knock off loose paint and surface rust. After that I mixed up some phosphoric acid and sprayed down the entire frame. The acid will neutralize the rust then I will apply paint. And yes, it is still unbelievably hot and humid here.

I was back at it today. It was so crazy hot and humid. Like instant sweating when you step outside. Super thick and sticky air. Not the most pleasant working conditions. But I am still motivated to see this build to the end. Still doing a bit of metal work. It is going pretty smoothly. It's very time consuming getting all the cutting gear out and the welding gear out and then having to switch back and forth between the two because they both run on 240 volt power. I hope to get some decking on soon. Maybe as soon as next weekend. Then I am hopeful that things will go much more quickly. I had my cousin Josh over today and introduced him to the plasma torch. He did good and helped me cut some rebar that I will use as support bracing. I have posted pictures below.

I was sick, then my dad was sick, then my Mom got really sick. She had to go to the ER and then the ICU. She is ok now though. All this happened while family was in town visiting for a week. WIth all the hospital drama and family visiting, not a whole lot was going on with the Tiny House build. I was able to cut some holes for the anchoring of the wood decking and perimiter 2x4 floor plates. I will use bolts to secure the house frame to the trailer frame. I will have a bolt every foot or so. This will be super sturdy. I keep thinking that the metal work is done, but I keep finding there is something more that I need to do. I don't really mind though. It's much easier to do this kind of work now rather than later when other things may be in the way, i.e. lumber, plumbing, etc….. I am wanting to get some paint on the frame but it doesn't make sense to paint it then grind it off to weld.

I have been working, both at my regular day job and on the weekends on our Tiny House. I'm trying to make sure that all is taken into account before the floor insulation and decking are installed. I have a little more to go before I start that but it just takes time. What is taking so long you might ask? Well I have a 4 year old that I love to spend time with. She will ALWAYS have priority. So I had to get some more angle iron last week. I welded that last rail on the back half of the trailer. I then welded on some knee bracing under the rails. I ground and wire wheeled the loose paint and rust from the back of the trailer, then I prepped the bare metal with phosphoric acid. That step will convert any existing rust from iron oxide into iron phosphate so that the metal will not continue to rust. Then next step is to paint the frame in the back half of the trailer. At this point, this is basically a one man operation, so it's kinda slow going. I've had some weather setbacks with rain too, but I must push forward. I will post more pics and vids below.

Me and Nette, my younger sister. I was showing her how wide the frame will be, 8' wide.

Gabby, my daughter, and Lincoln, our dog, wanted to get up there and check it out too.

Another week has passed and the only work on the trailer was done on the weekend. Not as much progress happens when I work full time, but hey, I'm not complaining. It's just that working on the Tiny House is way more fun and gratifying! So all I got done was some frame bracing and installing one of the rear perimeter rails. Unfortunately, I am short one joint (20 ft.) of angle iron. I will have to make a run to the "metal store" and pick up another joint of angle iron. This will be all the metal I will need for the frame. Next will be floor joists and insulation under the decking. As usual, I have posted some pics below.

Here I am cutting some angle iron to length using my dad's plasma torch. It cuts metal so fast! He has all the cool tools. LOL

Here you can see the V shaped bracing in the center. This was installed to help take away the bend the trailer had in the rear (think fish tail to the right). The bend was minor but needed to be corrected. The other shots are of the perimeter brackets and the perimeter rails.

Happy Father's Day to all the fathers out there! I got to do a little welding today. I welded on the perimeter rails on the front of the trailer. It is made of 1 1/2" X 1 1/2" angle iron. This was a pain in the ass to get started because the frame is not really that square. I mean it's square-ish but there's really not anything to start from as a base line. The two main I-beams that run the length of the trailer are not exactly ruler edge straight. They appear really straight but it if you look really carefully they flex side to side ever so slightly. This was throwing us off for a while but we managed to get a straight base line to work from. Now that the rails are in line, the rest of the frame and frame work will be square. You know what they say about starting with a solid foundation, well in this case it is a straight and square frame.

Unfortunately, we have not been busy on our Tiny House. It has been a busy week and weekend due to the end of the school year, graduations and grad parties, and beginning of summer. Oh and I forgot to mention that I just started a new job. Actually it's my old job that I just got re-hired back on. So my dad has offered to do some welding and fabrication while I'm busy at work. He is retired and thrives on projects. He loves to build things. It's his passion. I don't have any new pics yet, and for that I apologize. I will post some as soon as I take some.

Thanks for visiting this blog and if you have any questions please feel free to ask. I am more than happy to try to answer them.

So we got some welding done today! Welding goes fast but just like almost everything, the planning and prep work takes so much time. Measuring and measuring and cutting and measuring and aligning cannot be rushed. I am trying to make as few mistakes as possible. Welding is about as permanent as you can make something. We are going to use most of the side support/knee bracing that was originally on the trailer. On those, we will weld on a perimeter rail to support the decking and floor plate.

Tomorrow we will continue welding the rails and then fabricate some floor joist hangers. The floor joist hangers will be welded to the main support beams of the trailer. I'll post up pictures of those as we build and weld those. For now, enjoy some of the welding pics from today.

Being fully clothed in long pants and long sleeves is not real pleasant in 90 degree super humid weather, but "the juice is worth the squeeze".

We moved the trailer near the shop today to get it closer to the welding equipment. Nothing major going on today, just measuring and trying to get a materials list together. My dad is going to go to a new metal supplier tomorrow with the neighbor for the neighbors metal project. Dad will price out the 2x2x3/16" angle iron I need for the additional bracing. Hopefully they have good pricing there.

I was also prepping an old water heater for my solar batch water heater project. I stripped the outside metal off of it and also the insulation under that. I still need to sand it a little and paint it flat black. This is more of a side project I'm doing while I have a little down time on the Tiny House trailer. I have always wanted to make a solar batch water heater.

This morning I removed the two room extenders, in RV terms they are called slide outs. These are retractable frame assemblies that allow a room to extend out about 3 1/2' allowing for extra interior square footage. They are used in RV and travel trailers but they are not used in Tiny Houses, at least I've never seen them integrated in a Tiny House. We're gonna keep our Tiny House traditional and NOT keep any slide outs. I told my mom this at least half a dozen times and she just doesn't understand it. I told her she could have them and she could install them on her house. And she still didn't get it. At least she quit bugging me about the stinking slide outs!

Tomorrow my dad and I will be taking measurements and figuring out how much steel we will need to reinforce the trailer frame. Since the load of the house will be on the perimeter, we will need to beef that up a bit and also extend it out a little to maximize our house width. We will need to make a trip to the metal store and load up on some angle iron. We will be doing some welding, fabricating knee bracing and other structural supports. I am excited to do some welding. Welding is building. Demolition is done :)

I'm selling all the stuff from the travel trailer that I don't need on Craigslist. These slide outs are listed for $150.

I ripped off the decking yesterday, day 21, and I got down to the bare frame. It's in solid condition and has only minor surface rust. My dad is an API, American Petroleum Institute, inspector and is quite an expert in metal corrosion and welds and metal fatigue. He says the frame is structurally sound. You never really know what you are getting whenever you buy something like this used and I'm thankful to get his expert assessment. Anyways, it's great to get down to the frame. Next step will be taking a wire wheel to all the flaky paint surfaces and then prime and paint the entire frame. We live somewhat near the coast and it's almost always humid here in coastal southeast Texas. It would be prudent to paint any exposed metal to prevent any future corrosion. Oh yeah and we will also assess the frame for any rigidity issues. This frame is kinda more flexible and twisty than I like. We will be welding in some reinforcements to prevent the flexing and twisting. We will also be welding on support members to mount the perimeter of the framing on. This will allow us to build to the 8'6" maximum legal width.

Yes, bare frame!

The travel trailer mfg. only used 5/8" plywood for the decking! Surprising, the original floor was not bouncy or soft feeling. I will be recycling that plywood to make my solar batch hot water heater. Anything left over will be used for hurricane window protection.

The black tarp looking thing on the ground was the bottom lining of the travel trailer. It's kind of like a synthetic burlap type of material. It's super tough and waterproof. It was so water proof that it held the water that leaked in through the siding and flooring, trapping all that water onto the fiberglass wool floor insulation, which made a soggy mess.

Straight trailer :) I still have to dismantle the slide out mechanisms. The slide outs had electric motors that I will try to sell on eBay.

It was a hot bugger today and I'm sure my neck is more tan than the rest of me. I cleared the deck and it's ready to be removed. I made all the cuts that need to be made and tomorrow I will remove the decking. There should be no more wood on the trailer tomorrow. Hooray!

Below I have posted some before and after pictures of the demolition process.